Monday, July 19, 2010

Purgason Dominates Tea Party Poll: Hennessy Still Silent

Back in October of 2009, the St. Louis Tea Party held a small rally at St. Louis City Hall demanding that all of the Missouri Republican office holders endorse Doug Hoffman over Dede Scozzafava in a NY-23 Congressional Race. Bill Hennessy and Dana Loesch, the two speakers at the event, gave the office holders a deadline and Loesch said specifically to Roy Blunt that they would be "coming for" him if he didn't endorse Hoffman. In fact, she said, "we will vote you out! We will come at you with so much heat, you won't even know how to handle it!" The deadline passed and Roy Blunt completely ignored their demand.

Since that time, Loesch and Hennessy have been largely silent about Blunt in spite of their threat. Loesch has at least had Chuck Purgason on her show as a guest a couple times, but has not done anything to back up her "we will come at you with so much heat..." posturing. Hennessy hasn't said a peep of criticism of Blunt since then. But he did finally put a poll of up on the St. Louis Tea Party website asking people what they thought of the primary. The poll was to last until last Friday. And, as of this time, Chuck Purgason beat Blunt in a massive landslide, 64% to 25%. It appears that the membership of the St. Louis Tea Party massively favors Purgason over GOP establishment candidate Blunt.

Still, there has been no announcement of the poll results or any comment from Bill Hennessy. It's not clear what else he could want. He gave Roy Blunt an ultimatum. Blunt ignored it (and Purgason, by the way, DID endorse Hoffman). Hennessy polled tea party members, and they overwhelmingly voted for Purgason. He's stated opposition to Cash for Clunkers and the bank bailout, both of which Blunt voted for. So what exactly is holding him back from actually supporting a grassroots candidate that represents the values the tea party claims to stand for?

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